Riaz Haq writes this data-driven blog to provide information, express his opinions and make comments on many topics. Subjects include personal activities, education, South Asia, South Asian community, regional and international affairs and US politics to financial markets. For investors interested in South Asia, Riaz has another blog called South Asia Investor at http://www.southasiainvestor.com and a YouTube video channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrIDyFbC9N9evXYb9cA_gQ

Monday, January 9, 2012

Pakistanis Rank High on World Giving Index 2011

"Righteousness is not that ye turn your faces towards the east or the west, but righteousness is, one who believes in God, and the last day, and the angels, and the Book, and the prophets, and who gives wealth for His love to kindred, and orphans, and the poor, and the son of the road, beggars, and those in captivity; and who is steadfast in prayers, and gives alms." Quran 2:177

More Pakistanis gave to charities and the country saw the "largest jump in the rankings globally of 108 places, moving from 142nd to 34th in 2011", according to World Giving Index 2011. The report compiled by Charities Aid Foundation points out that "the floods did not lead to Pakistan's twenty-six percentage point rise in its World Giving Index score" because the survey was conducted before the 2010 floods.

World Giving Index Rankings in South Asia

The United States is ranked as the most generous in the world for charitable giving. Sri Lanka, ranking 8th in the world, leads philanthropy South Asia region. It is followed by Pakistan (ranked 34th globally) in second place, Bangladesh (ranked 78 globally) in third place, Nepal (ranked 84 globally) in fourth place, and India (ranked 91 globally) in last place.

It appears that the country scores in the World Giving Index reflect the breadth of participation rather than the amount of money given as percentage of income or gdp. Here's how the report explains it:

In order to reflect a culturally diverse planet, the report looks at three aspects of giving behavior. The questions that feed the report are:

1. Donated money to a charity?2. Volunteered your time to an organization?3. Helped a stranger, or someone you didn't know who needed help?

The low end of the estimate is by PCP that says Pakistanis contributed Rs.140 billion (US$1.7 billion), nearly 1% of the nation's gross domestic product of $170 billion in 2009.

The upper end of the estimate of 5% of GDP comes from Professor Anatol Lieven in his book Pakistan-A Hard Country. Lieven argues that the "levels of trust in Pakistani state institutions are extremely low, and for good reason. Partly in consequence, Pakistan has one of the lowest levels of tax collection outside Africa. On the other hand, charitable donations, at almost 5% of GDP, is one of the highest rates in the world".

Lieven lauds the work of TCF and several other charitable organizations, but he singles out Edhi Foundation for his most effusive praise of Pakistan's strong civil society filling the gaps left by the corrupt and incompetent government:

"There is no sight in Pakistan more moving than to visit some dusty, impoverished small town in arid wasteland, apparently abandoned by God and all sensible men and certainly abandoned by the Pakistani state and its own elected representatives- to see the flag of the Edhi Foundation flying over a concrete shack with a telephone, and the only ambulance in town standing in front. Here, if anywhere in Pakistan, lies the truth of human religion and human morality".

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Here's an Express Tribune story on community service requirement at elite schools in Pakistan:

The Social Service Society of Foundation Public School’s (FPS) A-Level campus is working on making this kind of work mandatory for all A-Level schools in the city.

According to Muneer Iqbal, the chairperson of the society, he and his peers are already in touch with students from other schools to push for this demand. Meanwhile, the school’s society plans to publicise the cause at events in different schools. “As youngsters, we should contribute to the society by helping those who are in need,” Iqbal said.

At the FPS A-Levels campus, all of the 120 first-year students have to do mandatory community service of 30 hours to be able to pass to the second year. They are free to choose what kind of work they want to do.

They can, for example, teach at government schools, tend to the elderly at shelter homes, or spend time with the mentally or physically challenged or those suffering from life-threatening diseases.

“Community service is greatly needed at government schools because they are in a deplorable state,” said Iqbal. “If educated people like us step forward, we can make a huge difference.”

Another student, Hamza Masood, also at FPS, believes that community service also gives students applying to universities abroad an edge. “Foreign universities prefer students who have done social service,” he said. “Even the top universities in Pakistan, like the Lahore University of Management Sciences, give credit to social service.”

But Masood does not do charity work because it will get him admission to a foreign university. According to him, at the end of the day it is satisfaction that one gets from helping the people that matters.

“I went to Dar ul Sukoon five months after I did community service there,” he said. “I was delighted when two children recognised me and called me by my name. They made me realise that our visits meant a lot to them.”

It seemed like students of other A-Level schools feel the same way. Saba Basit, who studies at Nixor College, believes that students should be made aware of how important serving the community was.

“Community service should be made mandatory but students should know what they are doing is important for the community rather than it being imposed upon them,” said Basit. “Social service does not only mean going to hospitals or old homes. It means that we can also help others in our neighborhoods as well.”....

The US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton presented Proctor & Gamble (P&G) with the thirteenth annual Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) for the company’s exceptional corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts in Pakistan.

Bob McDonald, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Proctor & Gamble Company accepted the award in a ceremony held at the State Department in Washington, DC on Wednesday.

US Consul General in Karachi William Martin and P&G Pakistan Country Manager Faisal Sabzwari joined the ceremony in Washington via digital video conferencing.

Addressing a news conference at the Karachi Consulate, Martin said that this was the first time that a firm based in Pakistan had received this prestigious award.

He said this recognition is likely to help boost foreign investments in Pakistan as international organisations are bound to take notice of the quality work being conducted in the country. He stated that this award signified the interest American investors have in Pakistan.

He further said that this award had been presented to a firm run and managed by Pakistanis which highlights the progressive social attitude of the people here. Sabzwari said that P&G Pakistan had made massive investments in the country, the last one being a $40 million investment into a laundry manufacturing facility.

He also mentioned the new plant established by the organisation in Port Qasim. Speaking about the award, he said that this year, 62 nominations were received for American companies operating in 38 different countries. Of these, some 13 companies were selected as award finalists. P&G Pakistan and Nigeria were selected as the winners among this group.

P&G Pakistan was awarded the ACE for the company’s efforts under its ‘Live, Learn, and Thrive’ CSR programme, including humanitarian assistance efforts to provide clean drinking water, food, hygiene products. It also made medical care available to over 1.9 million affected residents after the devastating 2010 floods. It also established a network of schools and supported orphanages. “A total contribution of over $2 million was made in flood aid,” he said.

On my three official visits to Chennai, I had nothing much to do in the evenings except catching up with my reading and watching the idiot box in the river facing rooms that I was ensconced in at the Madras Club, until I made some good friends. My one big grouse was that Indian TV channels believed that only bad news about Pakistan was worth covering. But soon after I returned to Pakistan and started watching our own news channels more intently, I found, much to my horror, that our own TV journalists were doing the same not just when covering India but also their own country.

Sadly, there is hardly a TV news channel which gives coverage to the excellent work that some charities are doing in Pakistan. No other country in the Third World has so many non-profit organisations that help the downtrodden in so diverse fields and on such large scales.

Everyone, at least in Pakistan, knows about the great job the Edhi Foundation is doing in different spheres – from running cancer hospices and ambulance services (Edhi Foundation has the largest fleet in the world, as the Guinness Book of Records mentions) to providing shelter to battered women and education to poor children. Mr Edhi, who deserves nothing less than a Nobel Prize for Peace, is everywhere despite his old age. Wherever there is a calamity, he rushes to the site to provide help. If an unwanted child is left in one of his centres, he (and his wife, Bilqees) is there to take the infant under his protective wing.

The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital in Lahore is doing a remarkable job too. Most of its patients are poor and unable to pay for the long drawn and expensive treatment provided by the hospital. The model is being replicated in Peshawar.

A state of the art health institution, the SIUT (Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation) and the Indus Hospital are both providing excellent services in the health sector. What is more they don’t charge anything. That goes for the LRBT (Layton Rehmatullah Benevolent Trust) as well. I remember an affluent lady who could have got ophthalmic treatment in any country in the West but she opted to have her surgery done at the LRBT, which is cleaner than most private hospitals in Karachi and where treatment can be described as state-of-the-art. Cured and satisfied, she gave a hefty donation to the institution and continues to pay from out of her zakat to the institution every Ramazan. ------------Many people buy nihari and naan for the poor who sit outside nihari joints. Karachi is dotted with what are more than mere soup kitchens. Edhi Foundation and Alamgir Trust are the ones who run these centres, where curry and naan are served twice a day. In Ramazan the beneficiaries swell manifold.

I was told by Umar Ghafoor, Chief Operating Officer, LRBT, that of the donations that the charity gets, 55 per cent comes from Pakistan and 45 per cent from the diaspora. Similar viewpoints were expressed by people at the helm of other non-profits as well.

I am afraid many people will go for my jugular because I have left quite a few organisations which are providing laudatory services to our people, particularly the ones outside Karachi. But I would only be too happy if my readers would write a paragraph about the philanthropists I have missed out.

KARACHI, Pakistan — During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Muhammad Tashfeen Khan does what millions of other Pakistanis do: tries to keep his money from the government's religious tax collectors.

The wealthy businessman pulls all his savings from his bank account right before Ramadan starts so the government cannot deduct 2.5 percent as zakat, the annual donation many Muslims are religiously required to make as a basic tenet of the Islamic faith.

Khan and many other Pakistanis do this, not to avoid paying zakat, but to make sure the money doesn't go to the government, which is viewed by most people as incompetent and corrupt.

For many years, Pakistan required all Sunni Muslims, who make up a majority of the country's population, to pay zakat straight to the government. That regulation changed recently, but many Pakistanis seem unaware and continue to pull their money out of the banks to elude the state.

Instead, they pay zakat to needy individuals and hundreds of private charities operating in the country – some of which are actually fronts for Islamist militant organizations seeking money for both social welfare activities and militant activity.

"When it comes to zakat, or any other religious issue, I can't trust the government," said Khan, who runs a chain of private schools in the southern port city of Karachi. It's a "corrupt system, which hardly cares about the poor," he said.

A former religious affairs minister was imprisoned last year for allegedly cheating hundreds of thousands of Pakistani Muslims out of money while they were making the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Khan said he gives over $1,000 to individuals and private charities every Ramadan, an amount he indicated was greater than what he would pay if the government deducted zakat from his bank account. Ramadan began in July and is expected to end in the next few days, depending on the sighting of the new moon.

"By taking matters in my own hands, I am satisfied that it goes to the deserving people and charity organizations," said Khan.----------"

Here are some excerpts of India's Economic Times story about Edhi Foundation:

The name Edhi is omnipresent in Karachi with his eponymous ambulances parked every few kilometres in this bustling metropolis but the man himself is elusive. While the ambulances may just be a call away, it takes several calls over seven days to reach the person whom all of Pakistan reveres — Abdul Sattar Edhi. "Edhi saab, has left for a far-flung village in Baluchistan half-an-hour ago. There has been a disease outbreak with some deaths reported. Call later," says the operator from an Edhi centre. Another try, three days later, gets a response that they had lost touch with Edhi.

Next day, thinking that the renowned social worker was probably trying to avoid an Indian reporter, I rope in a local to get an appointment. Even this ploy fails as he gets a worrying answer: Edhi saab was untraceable and the coast guard had been roped in to look for him. On my final day in Karachi, I make a last ditch effort. This time, I was directed to another office.

And a call later, Edhi is on the line, "aap aafice mein aa jayen, main yahin hoon." I scramble to his small nondescript office in the crowded Boulton Market,a part of the Mithadar area in Karachi, police escort in tow, knowing fully well that a single call from any emergency anywhere in Karachi can take away my subject for good. "I am a sahafi (journalist) from India.

I have an appointment with Edhi Sahab," I tell the receptionist-cum-office girl. She points to the frail bearded old man sitting alone on a worn out sofa next to her table, wearing a well worn brown Pathani suit and a pair of black plastic slippers. It's humbling to watch the man who single-handedly changed the concept of social service in Pakistan, and in doing so, touched millions of lives, sit alone in his office without any pretensions, recouping from his arduous journey from Baluchistan.-------------- What started out in 1951 in a small room in Mithadar, with a capital of just Rs 2,300*, has over the years transformed into Pakistan's biggest and most respected welfare operation. Today, the Edhi Foundation and Edhi Trust run a whole gamut of welfare services for the poor and the downtrodden across Pakistan. Services ranging from ambulance services to burial of the dead to maternity to shelter for homeless and abandoned children, are rendered through a network of welfare centres, hospitals, laboratories and clinics, mostly free of cost. .

"My services run from Siachen to Nagar Parkar," says Edhi. On any given day, 2,000 Edhi ambulances run on the streets of Pakistan, 8,000 employees provide a plethora of welfare services, and 26,000 homeless reside in the Edhi centers totting up expenses of more than Rs 5 lakh daily.

Edhi has also crossed boundaries: Abdul Sattar Edhi International Foundation provides regular services, like burial, in New York, and will start hostels and medical services in London and many more countries. Another ambitious project Edhi has undertaken is the Edhi 50 Kilometer Project, wherein 500 centers will be constructed on all highways and major link roads of Pakistan. For a man who now uses a chopper, air ambulances and Chinese boats for relief work, the journey started with an old Hillman van five decades ago.-------------Having such a well oiled set up in Pakistan why doesn't he turn to next door neighbour India that could do with some of his good welfare work? "India is the only country that stopped me from helping the poor. I wanted to go and help during the Kutch earthquake. The Indian government didn't allow me," he rues. But now, he says, its too late, he will have to start from the scratch. It's India's loss, Mr Edhi, completely our loss.

Here's a BR story on Pakistan becoming the second largest food donor to WFP:

Pakistan has emerged to be the second largest donor to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) consequent to its donation of 75,000 metric tons of wheat to it.

WFP Coordinator for the programme, Amjad Jamal giving details of the country's support said the contribution valued at approximately US$25 million, has placed Pakistan as WFP's second largest donor country so far this year.

The assistance, he said has been announced at a time when critical funding shortages threatened the provision of emergency food assistance to almost one million displaced people in the country's north-west.

The wheat will be milled, fortified and then provided to families displaced by security operations or only recently able to return to their homes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Combined with much-needed contributions from other donors, it will allow WFP to distribute a full cereal ration to these groups until the end of the year.

Jamal mentioned that a shortage of resources had forced WFP to reduce rations from January.

This latest contribution follows sizeable in-kind donations from the federal government and provincial governments of Sindh and Balochistan last year.

More than 70,000 metric tons of wheat was successfully delivered to both displaced and flood-affected communities in 2012, following a highly positive response from other donors to WFP's appeal for complementary "twinning" funds.

WFP's emergency response to the needs of displaced communities in the north-west is implemented under a new relief and recovery operation for Pakistan, launched on January 1, 2013.

Aiming to assist about 8 million people at a total cost of US$540 million over the next three years, the operation also seeks to improve economic opportunities and promote social inclusion in FATA, boost community resilience in disaster-prone locations, and prevent and treat moderate acute malnutrition among young children and women in the country's most food-insecure districts.

WFP's partnership with the Government of Pakistan contributes to the National Zero Hunger Programme, drawing on the successes of other countries in the fight to eradicate hunger and undernutrition.

"This very timely contribution is greatly welcomed and demonstrates the Government's ownership of the development process and commitment to helping its people," WFP Country Director and Representative in Pakistan Jean-Luc Siblot, was quoted to have said.

The last thing, he said WFP want to do is to cut assistance for the poorest and most vulnerable, and this wheat will help us to restore the food basket to a level that fully meets basic needs.

International donor community is also expected to provide some US$23 million needed for WFP to mill, fortify, transport and distribute the wheat.

Additional funds will also be required to purchase other commodities in the food basket, including specialised nutritious products for young children.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting against hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.

NAILA KASSIM: I am the Change (IATC) was launched in 2012, although at that point it was called ‘The Unsung Heroes’. As Engro’s flagship CSR initiative, the programme’s objectives are to support and celebrate those small organisations that are working towards the betterment of society in three key areas – health, education and livelihood.

AA: Why were those areas selected?

NK: They are the areas that really need help from Pakistan’s standpoint. If you look at the statistics, 68% of our population is under the age of 30, and according to the numbers that we have, a significant majority do not have the skills to enter the job market. Furthermore, by 2050 the number of young people is expected to hit the 236 million mark, with only 2.5 million of them with the requisite skills to work anywhere. This is why we chose livelihood. We picked education as it is a key aspect in the growth of any country. In Pakistan, more than seven million children of school going age are out of school. Lastly, the health sector is poorly served – 10 children die before reaching the age of five.

AA: How can organisations approach your platform?

NK: They can go to our website, www.iamthechange.com.pk and submit their project details, including the purpose of the project, estimated running costs and the number of beneficiaries targeted. Our jury reviews the entries, draws up a shortlist, and then awards Rs 500,000 to one project from each key area.

AA: What are the criteria to select the winners?

NK: The jury assesses each project on set criteria, such as is the project replicable, the impact of the project and what problem are they trying to solve. In 2012, the winners were the Garage School, The Dream Foundation, Karachi Vocational and Training Institute and the Patients Welfare Association. In April 2014, we awarded grants to Akhuwat which provides interest free loans; KhwendoKor, an NGO which works with women in FATA; and Child Aid Association which provides free cancer treatment to children.

AA: After the grant is awarded is there any support in terms of mentoring or sustainability?

NK: It’s not a one-off thing. After the initial funding, we stay in touch with these organisations, and when they need anything, they approach us. For example, the Child Aid Association was not strong in IT and they did not have proper electronic records of their patients, so our Information Systems department brought them up to speed with technology. With the Garage School, we donated approximately 600 shoe boxes containing six months worth of art and stationery supplies. We are also big on volunteerism within Engro and this year our employees undertook 11,000 hours of volunteerism in the various organisations that come under IATC.

AA: Why was crowdfunding added this time?

NK: We did this to open up these causes to the world so that anyone interested could donate. Ours is the first CSR crowdfunding website in Pakistan. Companies that want to give back to society can join this platform; they also get a tax rebate on their donation. We are going to approach large blue chip companies and make this larger than life. We are also big on social media and this gives donor companies publicity as well. In addition, crowdfunding will help them grow their network – so it’s a win-win situation for all.-------

AA: How do you plan to market IATC?

NK: We are very big on social media in terms of supporting IATC; however we are not doing ATL or BTL, because it’s better that the money goes back to the organisations. Also, the initiative is so technology driven that we want to focus on social media.

PAKISTAN is a country of paradoxes: while we rank 105th in terms of Gross National Income (GNI), we are placed fourth in the world for the amount we give to charity as a percentage of our per capita income.

As a result, some 45,000 not-for-profit organisations flourish across the country, making life a little less unbearable for millions. One of them is the Rasheed Memorial Welfare Organisation, located 35 kilometres north of Hyderabad towards Mirpurkhas.

I visited Rasheedabad, the organisation’s ongoing project in the heart of lower Sindh’s mango belt, a couple of months ago on the urging of an old friend who works there. Iqbal Samad is an ex-general manager of Pakistan Railways who, together with his wife, have made the community their home.

When I entered the walled township, I was amazed by its cleanliness: there was not a scrap of paper or a plastic bag in sight. This to me always indicates an attention to detail that is sadly missing in most of our public spaces. While showing me around, Iqbal bent down to pick up a candy wrapper in full view of a group of schoolchildren.

The project is the brainchild of a retired air commodore, Shabbir Ahmed Khan, who lost his son, flight-lieutenant Rasheed, in a tragic flying accident. He and a group of his colleagues and friends established RMWO in his memory in the late 1990s. Since then, they have raised an astounding Rs1.6 billion, or over $150 million.

They started off by gradually buying 100 acres of land, and then established the infrastructure as donations poured in from organisations and individuals from around the world. The RMWO model is simple: buildings and facilities are created for organisations working in the fields of education, health, environment and socio-economics.

Thus, several established and well-known organisations like the Layton Rehmatullah Trust and the Citizens Foundation have begun operations in these well-designed facilities. Housing has been built for staff, and a clean and healthy environment makes Rasheedabad a very attractive place to live in. A notable feature is the fact that all the buildings have been designed free of cost by well-known architects.

A school for deaf children is being run by the Family Educational Services Foundation. When I visited it, scores of kids were on a break, and waved cheerfully. The head teacher was conversant in sign language and showed us around, taking great pride in the facilities which included a computer lab.

It was the same story at the Citizens Foundation school where a very self-confident young principal recounted her pupils’ many accomplishments. Again, everything was spick and span, and the students wore immaculate uniforms.

A technical training centre teaches a range of subjects ranging from air-conditioning to motorcycle repairs. Students here are sponsored by corporations. A microcredit bank has bought sewing machines for 41 women after training them in the vocational centre.

I was delighted to learn that RMWO is building a large facility for Karachi’s Darul Sakoon. When completed next year, it will have space for 250 special children and 100 senior citizens. This remarkable organisation has been looking after kids, mostly abandoned by parents as they are mentally or physically challenged, for many years.

When I was running a private university in Karachi a few years ago, I urged students to devote part of their weekends to spending time with the children of Darul Sakoon. And Tabitha, my youngest stepdaughter, came from England to work here as a volunteer in her gap year. I was also able to find generous donors who enabled the selfless Sister Ruth of the Franciscan Order to buy a van and instal a lift. So this charitable organisation has a special place in my heart.

Pakistan, having poor social and economic indicators, tops the list of charity giving countries. This was confirmed in a research study by Aga Khan Foundation in 1998, which revealed that most Pakistanis give away charity or volunteer time every year, amounting to Rs 70 billion. This amount might have increased manifold over the period as Pakistan’s GDP growth has been on an average 4 per cent per annum.

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The private sector’s charitable organisations, some reputable hospitals or welfare entities also collect zakat and other donations. Reputable organisations like Edhi Foundation, Chhipa Welfare Association, Alamgir Welfare Trust, Indus Hospital Karachi, Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) of Civil Hospital Karachi, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT), The Citizens Foundation, and scores of others in different parts of Pakistan.They often make an appeal to the general public in the media or through other modes of advertisement for donations from zakat, ahead of Ramzan. Some faith-based or community-based charity organisations are also working effectively and efficiently in Pakistan and they also accept donations.Prominent among them are Al Khidmat Foundation — welfare wing of Jamaat-e-Islami; Khidmat Khalq Foundation — welfare organisation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Caritas — Pakistan’s branch of the international Catholic organisation, Jamiat-e-Punjabi-Saudagaran-e-Delhi, Aga Khan Development Network, Pakistan Hindu Council, etc.As no official data or record is available to quantify the size of individual charity in Pakistan, it is estimated that at least Rs 400 billion is given away by individuals every year in Pakistan as charity from zakat, sadqa or donations.Read also: On-screen RamzanAccording to Dr Siddiqi, the bulk of zakat money is given to individuals or relatives or people in dire need whereas a big portion of zakat goes to madrassas, also in an undocumented mode because of the religious belief that charity must be given secretly.The mechanism of distributing charity money is still primitive and traditional in Pakistan. One can recall that in October 2014 around eight to ten dacoits had looted an Edhi centre in Mithadar Karachi and whisked away five kilogrammes of gold and currency worth Rs 20 million (including some foreign currency).The money is either deposited as charity or as “amanat” at the Edhi centre, which runs the largest ambulance service in Pakistan, besides running old age homes, orphanages, etc. With such a huge network of ambulance operation across Pakistan the management style of Edhi Foundation is quite inclusive in nature. Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi is currently ill and his son Faisal and daughter Kubra Edhi are personally handling all finance related operations of Edhi Foundation.Similarly, many other organisations in Karachi like Chhipa Welfare Association and Sailani Welfare Trust, Alamgir Welfare Trust are some other organisations doing excellent charity work in Karachi city by not only providing free food and ambulances (by Chhipa) and healthcare support and provision of interest-free loans or equipment to youth for starting their own businesses (by Alamgir).But no audited accounts of these organisations are available. As against these reputable organisations, some other major organisations like LRBT, The Citizens Foundation, or Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust manage their audited accounts and the details are available on their websites.

#Pakistan to develop #CSR framework for public-private partnership for social sector investments and #HDI growth http://www.dawn.com/news/1229464

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help Pakistan develop best practices models to strengthen collaboration between the government, businesses and civil society organisations for the delivery of social services and poverty reduction.

The ADB assistance will lead to developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) frameworks and partnership models for effective linkages between public, private and civil society sectors.

The models aims to ‘building capacity of key stakeholders to strengthen partnerships; and establishing philanthropy and civil society organisation (CSO) networks to facilitate sustainable governance structures to contribute to inclusive social sector development and poverty alleviation in Pakistan’.

The ADB technical assistance will also enhance the capacity for resource mobilisation and CSR contribution of private sector and SCOs in Pakistan, according to ADB.

“Pakistan has experienced periods of strong economic growth. However, the resilience of the economy has been tested by exogenous and endogenous shocks and periods of macroeconomic instability. Sustainable social development and poverty alleviation has lagged behind economic growth,” the bank noted.

Pakistan ranks 146th out of 186 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI). Its progress in HDI and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were below many peer countries.

Pakistan’s expenditure on social sector at 0.8 per cent on health and 1.8pc on education is very low by world standards. The result is a large social sector deficit which is a drag on sustainable, inclusive economic growth and poverty alleviation, and creates risks to social stability.

It is clear that the magnitude of the social sector service delivery is beyond the fiscal and institutional capacity of the government, thus other alternatives must be considered to help achieve sustainable development.

In other countries, efforts are being made to create productive and viable linkages with key stakeholders such as the private sector and the civil society to ensure attainment of development goals. This may be a viable option for Pakistan as well.

To mobilise additional CSR and corporate philanthropy and to enhance its effectiveness, it is essential to identify best CSR practices and models, CSO implementing partners, and to form strong and credible linkages between government, philanthropists and civil society.

In order to enhance CSR for inclusive growth in Pakistan, it is crucial to generate relevant knowledge, form synergies, and create an enabling environment where these three segments of society work in partnership.

The ingredients exist to strengthen business and CSO contributions to overall social development and sector service improvement. Pakistan is a giving society, as indicated in several studies.

Pakistani cricketers will wear the logo of Edhi foundation on their playing shirts during the tour of England.

While addressing a ceremony to endorse the charitable organisation, Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shahayar Khan said that Edhi sahab deserved to get Nobel Award for his lifelong services to the humanity. He said that the Edhi foundation has tirelessly served the humanity.

Khan said that International Cricket Council (ICC) has granted Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) permission to don the Edhi foundation’s logo on Pakistan cricket team’s official kit.

The tour of England will begin with four Test matches starting next month, with the first match being played at Lord’s cricket ground in London on July 14.

The extraordinary growth that NGOs have experienced in recent years in their numbers, their outreach and their resources is unprecedented even by Pakistani standards. The number of active NGOs in the country is, at the very least, anywhere between 100,000 to 150,000, investigations by the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), a certification organisation for NGOs and charity institutions, reveal. By this count, there is at least one NGO for every 2,000 people. Way back in 2001, a Civil Society Index put together by the Aga Khan Foundation in Pakistan, in coordination with Civicus, an international alliance of civil society groups, put the number of “active and registered NGOs in Pakistan” at “around 10,000 to 12,000”.

The phenomenal rise in the number of NGOs could be linked to the massive injection of foreign money, especially donations and grants – and sometimes even loans – into Pakistan since 2001 (the United States alone has provided more than 10 billion dollars during these years). A major part of this money came into Pakistan due to the peculiar political and economic situation in the country. We have been through multiple violent conflicts during the last decade and a half; we have been transitioning from a dictatorship to a controlled democracy to a fully functional democracy, and our economy has been undergoing massive liberalisation. All this necessitated that foreigners came in to help with expertise and money to take Pakistan and Pakistanis through this troubled period of our history.

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If money is any guide, charitable NGOs, which live on the generosity of local donors, receive an estimated 70 billion rupees every year, according to Malik Babur Javed, a senior programme manager at PCP. These organisations do not include all those thousands of NGOs which receive money from the Pakistani government, international charities, the governments of other countries and multilateral forums like the United Nations institutions.

Sadiqa Salahuddin, the director of Karachi-based NGO Indus Resource Centre, which has been active in poverty alleviation and disaster relief and mitigation in rural Sindh for more than 20 years, says the presence of large amounts of money creates major issues of both capacity and corruption within NGOs, even when they genuinely want to carry out development activities. She cites the instance of her own NGO which received an unprecedented amount of funds to provide relief to the victims of the 2010 floods.

The disaster called for quick disbursal and management of vast resources which her NGO was not prepared for, she says. Having her base in Karachi but working in Dadu district, she found coordination and management a tough task. “It drove me crazy. I would go to Dadu myself every week.” Even this was not always helpful. In one instance, going through the statement of expenses spent on flood relief, she found “83,000 rupees spent on toothpastes”. She would find many errors in computation of prices and other procedural irregularities, simply because she did not have enough skilled and motivated staff to handle such assignments in a challenging post-disaster environment.

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Critics have been quick to point out that NGOs themselves don’t practice what they preach. They say NGOs avoid accountability and transparency as much as they possibly can and, therefore, are quite averse to any form of regulation or oversight. With some large NGOs having become heavily corporatised entities, where staff earn market-based salaries and where foreign money flows in regularly, it is natural to expect some kind of transparency and accountability — to be able to ask if all those salaries are being paid to the right people and for the right purposes as well as to ensure that foreign funds are spent on the projects they are meant for.

Excerpt on "NGOs" and "Civil Society" from "Force Multipliers: The Instrumentalities of Imperialism" by Maximilian Forte:

Force Multipliers, partners, intermediaries, agents of change---all of these are contained in the State Department's language, as it perfectly echoes the terms in favour in the military. The State Department makes it plain that it intends to use NGOs abroad as tools of US foreign policy, frequently using "civil society" as a rhetorically pretentious cover:

" We will reach beyond governments to offer a place at the table to groups and citizens willing to shoulder a fair share of the burden. Our efforts to engage beyond the state begin with outreach to civil society--activists, organizations, congregations, journalists who work through peaceful means to make their countries better. While civil society is varied, many groups have common goals with the United States, and working with civil society be effective and efficient path to advance our foreign policy goals". (DoS, 2010, pp 21-22)

Remote #Pakistan village near #Afghan #Wakhan corridor and #China border with a unique system of #philanthropy http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20171123-the-pakistan-village-with-a-unique-system-of-philanthropy?ocid=ww.social.link.twitter … … via @BBC_Travel

Most of the infrastructure improvements in Shimshal – including the bridges; the solar panels that power the 250 or so houses and the mobile phone towers with electricity; the rock walls that line the village roads; and the stone and mud houses constructed along the path to the pass ­– are a result of Nomus. There’s the community-run Shimshal Nature Trust, which oversees the region and takes care of its land. Even the Shimshal Valley Road was only made possible through the local community volunteering their labour along with the Aga Khan Rural Support Program and the Pakistan Government. Shimshalis are proud of their homes and the fact that they built their village themselves.

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I am the Founder and President of PakAlumni Worldwide, a global social network for Pakistanis, South Asians and their friends. I also served as Chairman of the NEDians Convention 2007. In addition to being a South Asia watcher, an investor, business consultant and avid follower of the world financial markets, I have more than 25 years experience in the hi-tech industry. I have been on the faculties of Rutgers University and NED Engineering University and cofounded two high-tech startups, Cautella, Inc. and DynArray Corp and managed multi-million dollar P&Ls. I am a pioneer of the PC and mobile businesses and I have held senior management positions in hardware and software development of Intel’s microprocessor product line from 8086 to Pentium processors. My experience includes senior roles in marketing, engineering and business management. I was recognized as “Person of the Year” by PC Magazine for my contribution to 80386 program. I have an MS degree in Electrical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
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